Re: [SM-DEVEL] Plugin on/off switch

[Paul L. <pa...@sq...>]

On 11/7/06, Paul Lesniewski <pa...@sq...> wrote:
> On 11/7/06, Brian G. Peterson <br...@br...> wrote:
> > On Monday 06 November 2006 18:07, Paul Lesniewski wrote:
> > >   I am considering adding a quick-n-easy on/off switch for plugins to
> > > conf.pl and thus config.php (hopefully can be added in the core in a
> > > place where its value could also be controlled by a plugin (like the
> > > debug/test plugin thread on this mailing list)).  Would allow admins
> > > to turn off plugins when they see a bug to validate if it is a plugin
> > > or a core issue.  Only support problem this raises is "why don't my
> > > plugins work?" because John No Brain Admin has the switch turned off.
> > >
> > >   Any objections?  Overkill?
> >
> > Seems fine, but your issue of a global change is a real and serious one.
>
> I hear that.  But same goes when an admin manually removes all plugins.
>
> > What about a way to turn off plugin loading *for a single user* so that a
> > production system continues to run as-normal for the majority of
> > squirrelmail users?
>
> With the proposed change, I am hoping it will be controllable by a
> plugin, thus a plugin like vlogin could readily control its value for
> just one user (or domain or user group, etc).

That was the dumbest comment ever.  If plugins are turned off, how can
any one plugin control this value?  Not.  However, I managed to
implement Brian's idea of limiting the "off switch" to just one user
(if no user is named, then it happens for all users).

I just committed this to CVS, so testing appreciated.


> > I think the thing that might be more useful, triggered by the recent
> > discussion of a new debugger plugin, would be a way to list which plugins
> > are registered for which hooks.
>
> A dump of the hooks array?  I agree that kind of output can be helpful
> in some contexts (although it can be inferred from the plugin list),
> but in the general support sense, we usually tell people to go off on
> their own and disable all plugins first.
>
> > When problems manifest themselves, it's usually on a specific screen, so
> > the number of plugins/hooks you'd need to disable is directly related to
> > that screen/hook.  I've often found myself wondering which plugin was
> > likely to be active in a particular place.
>
> So are you looking for some kind of information about what plugins are
> active on a certain page request?  Or a way to control the plugins
> just for that page request?  Hmmm, might be able to make all the hook
> functions log some kind of info in session, but I'm not sure that
> would be very useful given that you can simply grep the files in
> question for hooks and also because in 1.5.2 the plugin hooks array is
> static and immediately viewable by looking at config/plugin_hooks.php
> (although a plugin like vlogin can alter it at run time).
>
> - paul
>